Thursday, September 22, 2016

Almost Fall, Almost Payday, Almost Sane

Today was exhausting and great as I got to play with draping an actual living human form for the first time. It was one of my best friends in any country and I was helping her turn an old sofa-cover into a Halloween costume. I am weirdly giddy about this.
It reminded me of being 8 years old and trying to drape the massive petals and leaves of the trees outside our house around sticks, bringing fashion through foliage to....sticks, really. I loved it.
Then we took off for Sendai and I am so very lucky to have friends who are agreeable to watch my monster-baby while I teach because this little nut-ball I call a daughter was active-verging-on-insane for most of the lesson, with a complete meltdown coming at the end, when she was told that she couldn't steal toys from other kids.

She wanted to go to the owl cafe, but as we were all exhausted, it wasn't really an option. Also, freaked out kids spook the birds. Next time, if she's good and I have the money, we'll do it.

This hasn't been the easiest week, but we made it to the end with an appointment to have a walk-through at our preferred kindergarten in a week or so. I've got a few other big things lined up in the coming week to keep me busy.

I'd really wanted to edit a novel before nano, but really can't do it a) with the noise of the toddler about or b) when everyone's asleep but I'm too sleep deprived to function, which leaves c) during the school day when I am not working come April.

In the mean time, I will put some more energy into my Patreon projects, figure out my Halloween costume (and get Julia's ready as well) and maybe finally finish playing Fallout New Vegas.

But I am in a pretty secure emotional place, looking forward to dropping some money in the bank, and finding stuff to make happen.
Yay!

Though I am very much not looking forward to changing out my clothes again. It's something we don't usually do in Texas-- store half your wardrobe elsewhere for half the year. It's just not necessary.
But here it is, and that means digging through my drawers and each of 4 bins of organized clothing in addition to the space bags I have stored elsewhere.

Maybe my next project should be getting rid of some of these clothes.

For now, relaxing, blogging, Patreon, costuming, and video games.

Thursday, September 15, 2016

Half-way Through September...and I've No Idea What I'm Doing

I had planned to edit a nano novel this month. Instead, I've been playing tour guide to real and imagined visitors to Tohoku, the latter of which through my travel blog. My coverage of the Tanabata Festival tied for first place in the Summer Blogging Campaign. Yay!
I am using the winnings to buy a tortilla press. And a bunch of other stuff.

As I struggle to find more truly useful things to blog about and review, I'm also seeking out Engrish for a new Patreon I launched on the 13th. I prepare small lots of Engrish things and send them to people who pay me money. Then I go out on the hunt again. Shipping is included in the price. I've severely limited the number of patrons for each level because this isn't a big company. It's one woman with a baby putting together Engrish packages in the free time between blogging, teaching, and tending to the toddler. So yeah, 9 people.
So far it's already beating my Sock Monkey Patreon, but I am keeping both going because I like both. Creating something and sharing it every month is actually really good for my psyche, as is getting the creation into the world and out of my house (I am a hoarder after all). Remembering the fun parts of living in Japan and sharing that with others is a big deal, too, and also vital to my continued comfort in this inherently foreign place.

Speaking of inherently foreign, this week we officially started looking into kindergartens in Shiogama and the one I liked a lot is just about full. It's a Buddhist school that teaches tea ceremony and calligraphy to 5 year-olds, which I thought would be a cool way for Julia to start embracing parts of her Japanese culture before anyone has a chance to tell her she's not Japanese enough to enjoy them. Officially, applications will not even be accepted until next month, but priority goes to younger siblings of graduates and those enrolled in the pre-pre-k for 2 year-olds.
So we're basically screwed out of that school. That said, a very kind friend/student offered to get us in for a tour, which we took, and it was a very nice place, very close to where we live. That's where we learned that there are already kids wait-listed for the 3 spots open and they will have the list full be the end of the week. That's tomorrow. My husband and I haven't even been able to sit down and have a conversation over how we're paying for school (around $4,000 a year for 3-5 year-olds) much less which specific school we need to tour or how we're making the decision.

There are a number of kindergartens in Shiogama, most of them Buddhist. We'll see if there are any other options, or any at all we might be able to do without me having to go back into the world of full-time eikaiwa work.
I enjoyed teaching at conversational schools and they paid well enough, especially for a single woman in her 20s, but a lot of the energy I used for those classes came from a mostly-ignored maternal sense which now has a place to go. I do teach eikaiwa classes part-time even now, but doing this for a few hours a week has totally different requirements than doing so for 5-7 classes per day.

And I like writing and blogging and exploring. I like my Patreons and teaching Julia when I can and having adventures. I like what I do now...
But am I really just Homer Simpson in that episode of the Simpsons where he gets a job at the bowling alley before they realize Marge is pregnant with Maggie? Am I really just being a selfish jackass, letting my kid's intellect and options get squandered because I would rather make sock monkeys than pull frustrating old men through a complex language they are unlikely to ever use?
(This is a gross oversimplification. Most eikaiwa students are wonderful, and I do more at home than just making sock monkeys.)

I'm also feeling rather helpless, not just for the financial things but because I'm frustrated with not being completely fluent in Japanese. I can't just call up and tour kindergartens on my own. I can't just read all the paperwork and fill it out for us. I can't even just go with my mother-in-law as I'll never know what's going on. While my extraordinarily kind student/friend walked with us through the tour, I merely kept up with Julia, trying to keep her out of trouble without any idea what anyone was saying or why.

So in conclusion, I have no idea what we're doing for Julia's schooling or how we will pay for it or even how we will determine such a thing based on a significant lack of time. I want to write and make sock monkeys and send people boxes of Engrish. I don't know how I'll have time for all the writing and Patreons and Julia stuff if I go back to full-time eikaiwa work.

Yup. That's about it.

Thursday, September 1, 2016

September is Upon Us!

Indeed!
September has come and this morning I finally got something done. Yesterday I had too many goals, few of which could be accomplished with my toddler-turned-almost-kid-perhaps in tow. It's not that she's distracting, though she is, but the flights of fancy for a 3 year old come fast and hard, which makes it hard to keep up. I know I am not the only person to set a child down in a safe-ish area, turn around to do/write/make something, and turn back to find utter mayhem.
Luckily, a lot of my class preparation has been done for me this month as the one private lesson for whom I usually write tests is instead utilizing a copy of The Canterville Ghost that comes complete with activities, quizzes, and pre-reading assignments. Also, the story is divided up into sections that can be read easily and quickly, perfect for this private lesson.
I did finally get the dress for this month's Patreon item made this morning so I could get it on the monkey and photographed. These were all goals for yesterday torpedoed by my rambunctious offspring. But now it is online! See it here or with details about my Patreon here.
 Yay!
Now to clean up and relax before a friend from high school visits in a couple of days. My brain is trying to go into hyper-drive planning things to do-- because this is exciting and I rarely get visitors-- but I am trying to remember that this is someone's vacation. Stressed out crazy people don't really help anyone relax.
We're going to Matsushima, though, and it is hard for me not to relax when I am that close to the ocean and beautiful Matsushima.

You might have noticed last month I blogged a lot on a different website about travel and summer in Japan. Those posts and any future posts I do on specifically Japanese guide-type topics can be found here.

Right now, I am working on 2 blog posts about year-round fun activities in the area as well as a number of reviews for the same website. This month's contest incentive is, as previous noted perhaps, fruit for (the most) reviews. I'm aiming for 5th place so I can win 3000yen worth of apples for my daughter to eat.

This week has actually been really eventful but somehow flew past. Sunday we had a bubble-party for Julia, filling the air of the park nearest our house with bubbles from half a dozen 100 yen store sources. It was a great time, and an easy one. We came back to my place and watched the DVD copy of Willow I found a few weeks ago in Sendai. Cool, right? Yeah, geeky, but easy and fun! With home-made cake!

Julia's actual birthday was marred by typhoon weather, which abated just in time for us to see a sunset and not have to relocate to my in-laws' house for the evening to avoid my husband's car being washed away in flooding. Yay for not having to leave! Everything was alright, though Julia started off the day by kicking my arm while I was playing Minecraft, sending my character into lava where she died. luckily I was travelling with friends who could pick up my inventory and bring them back to our little village. Soon, I will return to the virtual world we created and reclaim my property. I'm almost over the burn now.
I was really angry about my daughter killing me on her birthday.
Yes, killing me in game, but still. It was not a great time.

Now we've got tons of fun and crazy cool times ahead! So much to do, so little time to write about it.